History Challenge answers

1. The Saratoga Cup annually attracted the best handicap runners in the nation. Hall of Famer Kentucky captured the first two runnings in 1865 and 1866.

Longfellow captured the event in 1871, and Parole won back-to-back runnings in 1877-78. Both are enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

In 1875, Preakness - for whom the second leg of the Triple Crown is named - dead-heated in the Cup with Springbok.

The renowned filly Beldame captured the Cup in 1904, and Roamer won the event in 1915.
Exterminator, arguably the greatest long-distance runner of the 20th century, won the Saratoga Cup an incredible four straight years (1919-22).

In the 1930s, five future Hall of Fame inductees won the race: Gallant Fox (1930), Twenty Grand (1931), Equipoise (1933), Granville (1936), and War Admiral (1938).

Stymie, claimed for $1,500 in 1944, won the Saratoga Cup in 1945 and 1946 en route to being the world's leading money-winner, a title he retained until Citation surpassed him in 1951.

2. The Louisville Cup was designed to be the premier event of the inaugural Louisville Jockey Club meeting.

Track founder Meriwether Lewis Clark commissioned a Victorian cup made of 270 troy ounces of silver for the race. The winner of the 2 1/4-mile contest, Ballenkeel, drank water out of the cup after the race.

When the six-day meeting was over, however, the most talked-about race was the opening-day Kentucky Derby. The Louisville Cup was dropped after 1886, but eventually found a home in 1913 at Douglas Park, just a few miles south of Churchill Downs, where it remained a significant fixture until returning to Churchill for its final three runnings, 1919-1921.

In 1911, Churchill Downs attempted to renew interest in long-distance racing when it presented the first running of the Kentucky Endurance Gold Cup, run at four miles.

The race lasted two more years, but never attracted quality horses and was abandoned.

The second running of the Endurance Gold Cup was won by Sotemia, who set a world record for the distance of 7:10.80 - a time that has not been equaled or surpassed in the 100 years since.

3. Salvator, winner of the inaugural Realization Stakes for 3-year-olds in 1889, collected an incredible $34,100 for the victory. The winners of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont, and Travers stakes that year each received less than $5,000.

In 1899, following the death of James G. K. Lawrence, president of the Coney Island Jockey Club, his name was added to the race he founded.

The immortal Man o' War won the 1920 Lawrence Realization Stakes by 100 lengths, establishing a new world record for 1 5/8 miles (2:40.80).

4. Miss Grillo's time of 4:14.60 for 2 1/2 miles in the 1948 Pimlico Cup is still listed as the world record for the distance in 2011.

Bought in South America for $20,000 by Hall of Fame trainer Horatio Luro, Miss Grillo took on all comers - male and female - during her career in North and South America, including Stymie, who won the Pimlico Cup in 1945.

The Pimlico Cup was inaugurated at the Maryland track in 1919, with the first three runnings taken by Exterminator - a gelding who had no equal among marathon runners.

Pimlico began gradually shortening the race in the 1950's and finally dropped it after 1961, when cup racing was falling out of favor with owners and trainers.

5. In the 35 years that the Display Handicap was run (1955-1990), it went from being extremely popular (it was twice split into two divisions) to struggling to get enough trainers interested in running their better horses 2 1/4 miles.

In the early years, the race was won by handicap stars such as Quicken Tree (twice), Nickel Boy, and Paraje (three times).

Later editions of the Display often attracted only high-priced claimers and allowance runners who excelled at running longer distances.